MURFREESBORO – Members of the Oakland boys soccer team had sophomore teammate Noah McClard in their thoughts and on their sleeves Thursday night when they played cross-town rival Riverdale to a tie.

McClard, a varsity player, will have surgery on Monday afternoon to remove a tumor on his brain at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. Doctors discovered the mass after McClard suffered a seizure at Oakland High on Wednesday.

The tumor will then be sent to pathology to determine if it’s cancerous or benign.

“This is kind of surreal,” said Chase Hochstetler, one of McClard’s soccer teammates at Oakland. “It’s like this is not really happening.

“It’s hard to come to grips with. We all want to play for him.”

The Patriots wore blue arm bands with McClard’s initials and jersey number against the Warriors to show their united support for their teammate.

“It’s been really hard,” Oakland teammate Jakob Hurst said. “We wanted everyone to know we care about him. We played that game for him.”

The tumor is on his right frontal lobe, Oakland coach Jeff Boynton said.

“It happened real quick,” Boynton said. “I found out (Wednesday) and 24 hours later he had surgery scheduled.”

McClard is a defender for the Patriots. He said he felt no signs of anything being wrong prior to the seizure.

“I had literally played a game the night before (against Stewarts Creek),” McClard said. “I felt fine. It just surprised me.”

He wasn’t the only one that was shocked.

Sarah McClard, Noah’s mother, received a call from Oakland High on Wednesday that her son was being taken to the emergency room because of the seizure.

“It has happened really fast,” she said. “There has been a lot that has happened since Wednesday. But he is handling it well. Noah is as positive as you can be. He says he feels fine. He looks great. He’s been his normal easy going self. He’s been making jokes.

“That’s helping me and (his dad) Tommy out.”

Oakland soccer player Tristan Brown said they plan to continue to support their teammate, and plan on visiting him as soon as they can.

“Coach (Boynton) said we will try to go see him when he gets out of surgery (on Monday),” Brown said. “If not, we’ll try and see him after our game (with Smyrna) on Tuesday.

“We just want to see him as soon as possible.”

Doctors have described the tumor as “medium to large size,” Sarah McClard said.

“I was surprised on how big it looked,” she said. “It was shocking that with it looking that big he showed no symptoms.”

But through it all, his mother said her faith has not been tested.

“I put in in God’s hands and know that God will work through the surgeons and doctors on Monday,” Sarah McClard said. “Everyone we know are believing and praying for the best possible outcome.

“We are part of a research study and they came out to ask us a bunch of questions. One of the questions was if anytime in the process have we been upset or mad. Obviously, I’ve been upset, sad and down. But I have not been mad. I have not been mad at God. Everything happens for a reason.”

Contact Tom Kreager at 615-278-5168 or tkreager@dnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Kreager.